The White House announced Monday it will launch a governmentwide program to encourage entrepreneurship and small-business creation, part of the Obama administration’s ongoing strategy to improve its relationship with the business community — this time, from the ground up.

The program, called Startup America, expands business-investment tax credits, broadens federal support programs for small businesses and opens access to $2 billion in federal venture-capital matching funds, according to administration officials. The goal, they said, is to encourage innovation — and job creation — by making it easier for individuals to open a business or develop a promising concept.

It also builds on President Barack Obama’s State of the Union declaration that startup businesses and innovative ideas are the key to the nation’s economic future.

“Entrepreneurs embody the promise of America: the belief that if you have a good idea and are willing to work hard and see it through, you can succeed in this country,” Obama said in a statement accompanying Monday’s announcement. “And in fulfilling this promise, entrepreneurs also play a critical role in expanding our economy and creating jobs.”

The president named AOL co-founder Steve Case — the former chairman of one of the most successful Internet companies in the world — to lead the effort. He also enlisted General Electric CEO Jeffrey Immelt, chairman of a White House council on jobs and competitiveness.

Obama plans to sell the program across the country in coming weeks, including a trip Wednesday to Penn State University. White House officials said the president will highlight how small businesses have advanced technology, created products that changed the world or simply acted on an idea and created new jobs.

Case and Carl Schramm, CEO of the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, will head up a public-private initiative, which SBA Administrator Karen Mills said has already resulted in $400 million in private-sector funding for capital investments.

The administration in its 2011 budget will propose an expansion of business investment tax credits that were included in the Small Business Jobs Act that Congress passed in September. At the same time, the Small Business Administration also plans to commit $2 billion in matching funds for “high-growth” companies, seed money that Mills said would not come from taxpayers.

The White House has been careful to emphasize that Startup America expands existing federal programs without adding to the deficit — a necessity, they say, now that newly empowered Republicans in Congress can pull the federal purse strings for programs that aren’t paid for with cuts or fiscal adjustments.

“Many of these activities have been in existence for quite some time,” Commerce Secretary Gary Locke said Monday. “A lot of the programs that we’re talking about today are taking existing programs and putting even greater attention, greater focus and greater urgency on leveraging with the private sector, nonprofit organizations, organizations that are a part of Startup America, and making sure that we are focused on that No. 1 priority of the administration and the president: creating jobs.”

In an unmistakable sign of the shifting winds, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce — a principal critic of the White House’s business posture and a Republican ally — is joining the partnership. On Monday, the organization announced it would commit $1 million to expanding its own entrepreneurship education efforts.

Still, Republicans were largely unimpressed by the administration’s announcement.

House Small Business Committee Chairman Sam Graves (R-Mo.) called the initiative “another gimmick” that will not do much to help struggling entrepreneurs. “At the end of the day, this program is about spending more money that our government doesn’t have,” Graves said in a statement.

“The best thing we can do to help small-business owners succeed is cut spending,” he said. “When we stop running up huge budget deficits and start acting responsibly in Washington, we will provide small-business owners with the certainty they need to put Americans back to work.”